Boston Globe

(Dr. Richard D. Tabors is a research Associate at the Harvard University Center for Population Studies. He and his wire, Patton O. Tabors, spent 12 months working in Pakistan in 1969 and 1970. Returning there again late last year, they witnessed the outbreak of the Revolution and only returned last month to Harvard.)

March 25, 1971 marked to the day two years or military government by the Yahya Khan regime in Pakistan.

Promises for a return to civilian rule, at first viewed skeptically by the Bengalis of East Pakistan, were about to be realized. The papers announced that an "Interim government" for East Pakistan would be formed soon under Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, leader of the Awami League. The days of strikes and threats and fear would soon be over and East Pakistan would at last have a chance to pursue an autonomous policy, free from the central government control which had made the eastern wing of the country, despite its majority population, a virtual economic colony.

The streets of Dacca were filled with processions of teachers and students, factory workers and once workers shouting "Jai Bangla"--Hail Bengal-a cry of national pride for the Bengali people, a cry not heard during the long years of West Pakistani domination.

WON ELECTION

Due primarily to agitation which had developed in East Pakistan, general elections had been held in December, 1970 for the first time in the 23 year history of the country. These elections had given Sheikh Mujib's party not only a majority of seats for East Pakistan in the upcoming national constitutional assembly, but a majority of the seats for the country as a whole.

The Awami League's symbol, the country boat, and photos of the Sheikh appeared everywhere in the streets of Dacha. Massive rallies were held in support of the policies advocated by the Sheikh. The determination of the people of East Pakistan to achieve autonomy (but not political independence) was clear.

This sense of jubilation was no doubt heightened by the fact that East Pakistan's development had been severely retarded in the past by central government policies. in 1960 the per capita income of West Pakistan was 32 percent higher than that of the East; during the 10 year period to the present this has increased to 61 percent. Never has the Minister of Finance or the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission (which allocates development monies) been from East Pakistan and, in 1960, only 13 percent of the senior civil servants of the country as a whole were from East Pakistan.

NEGOTIATE

Combined with this is the fact that a majority of the military and virtually all of the officers are West Pakistani, and the military have been in control of the country since the beginning of the Ayub Khan regime in 1958. At last it now seemed that East Pakistan was to have a chance to negotiate directly with aid giving agencies for development funds, as the Awami League's platform called for the central government control of foreign affairs and defense exclusively leaving all of the residual powers to the federated units.

STALEMATE

As the time for the meeting of the National Assembly in early March approached, however, it became obvious that a political stalemate might develop. Previous to the elections it had been assumed several political parties would emerge in the nation and that the constitution would thus ,be a compromise document- Instead, the Awami League swept East Pakistan and the Pakistan People's Party (PPP), under the leadership of Z. A. Bhutto, won a majority of the seats in West Pakistan.

In the East there was a feeling that the army and the PPP Were not willing to turn over leadership to the Awami League. The leaders of the West, on the other hand, saw the National Assembly and the formation of a constitution under the conditions of an Awami League absolute majority as little more than a railroad job in which they would merely add a rubber stamp of political legitimization.

Talks were held between Sheikh Mujib and Bhutto but little progress was made. On March 1 the President announced the postponement of the National Assembly. The result was a massive civil disobedience campaign in East Pakistan. in the ensuing riots Bengal demonstrators were killed by the armed forces. At the same time mobs of Bengalis looted and burned the property of West Pakistanis and other non-Bengalis and in the process members of these communities were killed.

MODERATING

The role of the Awami League and more particularly of Sheikh Mujib during this period was that of a moderating force, calling for the return of the army to their barracks and the quieting of civilian unrest. The Awami League formed its own peace keeping forces and with the East Pakistan Rifles and East Pakistan Police maintained calm in the major cities, the location of most of the earlier trouble.

CONTROL

During this period of political activity, from the 1st to the 25th of March, the Awami League extended its control over the operation of the governmental structure of the province. Initially it performed the peace keeping function, then selectively requested that banks open, that workers return to work in nongovernmental jobs and in cyclone reconstruction projects, and finally that ports, customs and ta offices again function but that the revenue earned was to be deposited in escrow accounts in East Pakistan based banks.

The Awami League under the leadership of Sheikh Mujib, had therefore, assumed the functions of a government through an evolutionary process. it was legitimate in that it represented virtually all of the people of East Pakistan, had assumed administrative roles in the functioning of the province and had even taken time out to talk to leaders of diplomatic missions in the province. And so, it seemed, the stage was set for the announcement of the "interim government."

DEATH

But on the 26th of March there were no morning papers ., . the building housing the leading Bengali language paper, the Ittefaq, had been destroyed by fire and all other papers were closed. There were no processions of students and teachers and workers . . . the university students living in the residential halls had been awakened by firing; those who did not escape were killed on the spot and burled in a massive grave in front of one of the halls . . . Leading professors of the university had been taken from their university quarters and executed . . . workers living in "basti" villages made of woven bamboo had been burned in their houses or gunned down trying to escape the flames which had been set by the army.

FIGHT CONTINUES

Sheikh Mujib had been arrested as a traitor and taken to prison in West Pakistan. The cries of "Jai Bangla" had been replaced by the West Pakistanis' "Pakistan Zindabad"- long live Pakistan. The nation had been plunged into a civil war for which no one but the army, with its American and Chinese supplied arms, was prepared.

A cartoon which appeared in the papers during the period of noncooperation showed an army tank lined up against an endless stream of Bengalis. The implication was obvious-the army has superior firepower, but East Pakistan has a population of 76 million people determined to end the domination of East Pakistan by the West. Now that the legitimate political channels have been closed, the fight for independence probably will be carried on in the cities and the countryside of East Pakistan.